EU Backing Down on Terror List Secrecy
Andrew Rettman writes on EU Observer:
EU states are planning to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding how names appear on their list of terrorist entities "in the near future" - but in the meantime member states are breaking their own laws, some lawyers say.
The list - which numbers 54 individuals and 50 groups - sees EU states vote every six months on which names should go in or out on the basis of secret evidence submitted by "competent national authorities" with "guilty" parties facing stigma and frozen bank accounts.
But following a December 2006 ruling by the EU court in Luxembourg, suspects will now be sent "statements of motivation" setting out the evidence against them and instructions on how to mount a legal challenge in a potential watershed for EU security work.
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here.
Euro Deputies Push Through Anti-Terror Telecom Measures
An AFP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:
EU lawmakers voted to allow police greater access to telephone and Internet data, but the proposed measures fall far short of a tough European anti-terror package Britain is seeking.
The vote, by the European Parliament's justice and home affairs committee, would see telecommunications data held for six to 12 months and force EU member states to pay the costs they might impose on companies.
The measures have to be adopted by the full EU assembly in mid-December.
They would oblige businesses to keep details about callers, such as who they spoke to, where and when, and would apply to land telephone lines and mobile phones, text messages, and Internet protocols.
EU, U.S. Reach Preliminary Deal on SWIFT Data
Ingrid Melander writes for Reuters:
The EU and the United States have reached a preliminary deal on how U.S. authorities can consult data from the international banking network SWIFT in anti-terror investigations, an EU spokesman said on Wednesday.
"We have a draft agreement," Friso Roscam Abbing, spokesman for EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said of an accord aimed at allaying European data privacy concerns.
Roscam Abbing did not give details but said the deal included provisions on data protection. "Then it is for SWIFT and for the banks to do their share in informing in advance their customers about providing the data," he said.
U.S. officials could not confirm if a preliminary deal had been reached. One said: "The process for reaching a final deal is still ongoing."
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here.
EU to Force Telecoms to Keep Records
An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:
The European Union agreed Wednesday to legally require telecommunications companies to keep records of phone and e-mail traffic for up to one year as part of the bloc's anti-terrorist campaign.
The decision by 25 EU justice ministers comes after years of European debate over the privacy and cost concerns of data retention. Officials said the ministers agreed phone companies must keep records for 12 months and Internet providers for six months.
Britain, which holds the rotating EU presidency, has pushed for a data retention order as part of anti-terror efforts in the wake of the deadly bombings in London in July.
Data retention laws vary from country to country within the bloc. Fifteen EU countries have no such laws. But Italy and Ireland require telecommunications data be kept for three and four years, respectively; those tougher standards will remain under Wednesday decision.
EU power struggle threatens anti-terror data logs
A Reuters newswire article by Marie-Louise Moller, via Yahoo! News, reports that:
A power struggle between the European Union's three big institutions is threatening to derail Britain's ambition to get a speedy deal on anti-terrorism plans to log telephone calls, e-mails and Internet use.
After the July 7 London bombings, the EU agreed to speed up legislation to require telecoms providers to keep records for at least a year, seen as vital for police to prevent and investigate terrorist attacks.
Britain made the measure one of the top priorities of its six-month presidency of the 25-nation bloc.
But prospects of a deal have been dimmed by a wrangle among EU ministers, the European Parliament and the executive European Commission over whether or not member states can decide alone without letting EU lawmakers have a say on the plans.
European Parliament: Anti-Terror Efforts Have Gone Too Far
Via UPI.
The European Parliament says the EU Commission and member states have overreached in their reaction to terrorism, endangering citizens' privacy and rights.
In a broad-ranging resolution this week, the Parliament opposed the establishment of a European air passenger personal data system like the one run in America by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The resolution, passed Wednesday 359-293 with 38 abstentions, called any form of profiling or data-mining in EU counter-terrorism measures "unacceptable."
It expressed concern about the growing use of existing EU immigration databases, including one of asylum-seekers, for counter-terrorism purposes; and about the European Commission's proposal to collect Passenger Name Records from the airlines as the United States and Canada currently do.
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here.
Europe: Terror clampdown on individuals' funds
Keith Nuthall writes in Accountancy Age:
The European Court of Justice has ruled that European Union (EU) institutions have the legal authority to freeze the funds of individuals ‘in connection with the fight against international terrorism’, if it is sanctioned by the UN Security Council.
Its decision comes in a case brought by Ahmed Ali Yusuf, the Al Barakaat International Foundation and Yassin Abdullah Kadi, whose funds were frozen in Sweden in 2001.
Kadi heads the Saudi-based Muwafaq Foundation, which the US alleges is an al-Qaeda front, and Yusuf the Sweden-based Al-Barakaat foundation, whose claims to send humanitarian aid to Somalia have been challenged by intelligence services.
The plaintiffs argued the 2002 EU regulation used to freeze their property illegally infringed their property rights, but the court found the EU had no choice but to approve the law, given the paramount nature of UN decisions, ‘which prevail over any other obligation’.
UK sets out case for data logs to fight terror
Aine Gallagher writes for Reuters:
Britain, which is pushing for new EU laws on data retention, said on Wednesday that logging and storing telephone calls, email and Internet use had helped its police trap suspected terrorists.
European Union states have agreed to speed up plans for common rules on the use of data after the July 7 London attacks but the strategy has drawn criticism from EU lawmakers and the European telecommunications industry.
Britain's Home Office, or interior ministry, cited examples of where stored telephone calls, email and Internet use had proved essential in crime investigations.
Britain currently holds the rotating chair of the EU.
Tentative EU-US Deal to Limit Use of SWIFT Data
An AP newswire article, via The International Herald Tribune, reports that:
European Union governments have reached a tentative deal with the United States clarifying how it will use data it receives from Belgian-based bank transfer consortium SWIFT in anti-terror investigations, diplomats said Wednesday.
The deal is aimed at ending a trans-Atlantic battle on privacy rights in the hunt for terrorists, and would close a legal black hole over the status of a data transfer deal SWIFT signed with U.S. authorities after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The new draft agreement would bind the U.S. to use SWIFT data strictly in anti-terror investigations, the diplomats said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.
Other uses of the data would have to meet conditions set by European data protection officials, they said.
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here.
EU Lawmakers Agree on Compromise for Telephone Records
A Reuters newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:
European Union lawmakers will vote next week to allow details of all telephone calls and Internet use to be stored for six months to a year to combat terror and serious crime, a deputy said on Wednesday.
This step by the European Parliament's civil liberties committee would set the scene for a showdown with the EU's 25 member states, some of whom want data stored for much longer.
Telecom firms typically store data for three months for billing customers.
SWIFT Sides With U.S. in Data Spat With EU
Mark Ballard writes on The Register:
The Belgian firm stuck in the middle of a transatlantic spat over the US infringement of civil liberties by the agents of its war on terror is throwing its lot in with the Americans.
In open defiance of European privacy officials, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift), has declared that it has applied to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for 'safe harbour' protection for the data it holds on US soil.
Swift had handed data containing the details of private international financial transactions to US terrorist finance investigators under a secret arrangement since late 2001. Since the transfers came to light last June, Europe's data protection authorities have declared that Swift is a data controller and, as such, it should take responsibility for the privacy of the data it administers for its banking clients.
Swift claims it is not a controller, but a mere processor and cannot be held responsible for what European authorities say is the illegal transfer of data to US Treasury agents.
More
here.
